Posts made by ShelBeast

Yes.

For the record...

I wasn't trying to outright accuse anyone of bias. I was simply trying to point out the appearance of bias, and have the actual rules made clear about what gets moved and why. Because, really, again, it came down to the nature of the conversation and Auspice's participation in that, as well as the simple fact that not letting people give their complaints in an ad, but relegating them specifically to a part of the board that is restricted.... is just kind of... meh. If a place has problems it should be easily accessible to anyone who is looking at that game as a potential place to play.

@ganymede Consider it done. No worries.

@ganymede It's cool, and I understand why the call was made, and all that. It just doesn't look good when @Auspice is full on white knighting the game, AND is the one who puts all the complaints over onto a new thread in a place that isn't accessed by the entirety of the public. The accusation may be dead-ass wrong, but it doesn't change how it looked. I'm not trying to point fingers or mud fling. I'm just asking, as Auspice already said, that in the future, maybe a little bit of care was taken in considering who is the public face of such moves.

@auspice Please do. Thank you.

I will follow @saosmash and say that I have found staff to be extremely and maliciously biased and pointed towards favoritism, which leads to an uneven play experience. You will either be accepted into the in crowd and find it a RP wonderland, or you will see it as the toxic environment that it is. What you do with that is your decision to make.

@auspice I think that, maybe, if someone other than someone gushing all the time about the game (indicating a clear bias), had made that call...

So, outta curiosity... basically any sort of negative review of a place gets moved out of an ad thread where potential players cannot necessarily see it? So all games, no matter how toxic, look like shining beacons of the community? Just want to be clear. Because the Hog Pit isn't seen by all people, and it seems jilted to diminish fairness in review. it's like saying that google makes you post to another site to place a 1 star review on a restaurant. On Google, you can only do 5 star reviews.

Man: Well, its official! I've put in enough overtime to actually get a week's paid vacation! Finally! Working ninety hour weeks for the last seven months has really paid off!

Woman: Wow, honey! Let's start planning! Where do you want to go?

Man: I was thinking we could go to Las Vegas!

Woman: Mmmm.

Man: What? Doesn't it sound like fun to you?

Woman: It does... I was just thinking of something... you know... more exotic. Somewhere out of the country!

Announcer: What if you didn't have to chose? What if you could take in the richness of an exotic culture, while living the high roller life of a Las Vegas casino?

Man: Wow! That sounds too good to be true!

Announcer: Oh, but it isn't! Haven't you heard of the Rising Sun Casino and Resort?

Woman: Oh! Becky with the good hair was talking about this the other day! Tell us more!

Announcer: The Rising Sun Casino and Resort in historic Fallcoast, Maine brings all the wonder and excitement of a trip to Japan right here to the United States! What's more is that you can enjoy all the perks of a full scale grand casino, just like those other places, without having to deal with desert heat, or any unscrupulous types!

Woman: But what about our kids? We can't just take them to a casino!

Announcer: Why not?! The Rising Sun is much more than just a casino! It has something for everyone! You can get a taste of Feudal Japan by visiting Little Edo, where you can shop, while the kids enjoy arcades, or you can get the family together to relax by the majestic koi pond, while Dad hits the poker tables! Or, you can experience the bustling energy of Tokyo at Shinjuku Station, where you will find food from all around the world! It even has a world famous all you can eat buffet! If fine dining is more your speed, you can come experience World renowned Chef Nobuo Hideaki's Ume House, where you will be blessed by his exquisite dishes that blend East with West in a dynamic fusion! It just opened and already has a Michelin Star rating!

Man: Well, that's all well and good, but I want to have fun! Shopping, eating and relaxing by a pond isn't going to do that!

Announcer: Well, how about a day at the pool? The exclusive Tokyo Tower Hotel has all the amenities one could dream of, complete with an indoor-outdoor pool, day spa, massage tables, and so much more! If that's not enough, you can enjoy the thriving nightlife at one of two hot spots. Club Kabukicho captures the essence of Tokyo's Red Light district by offering the hottest DJs and live music shows with stunning visuals and lightshows! If that sounds too wild, you can have a more relaxed evening at the Roppongi Nights Lounge and take in a comedy show, or any number of other live performances in the stadium seated auditorium! As an added bonus, The Rising Sun is located in Historic downtown Fallcoast, within walking distance of all the other attractions and just minutes from the waterfront! You really can't beat it!

Woman: Well that does it. I'm sold!

Man: Me too! It sounds like there's something for everyone!

Announcer: There is! The Rising Sun accomodates all people from all walks of life, and all budgets. So come treat yourself and experience the beauty and excitement that is the Rising Sun today! You deserve it!

This ad was paid for in part by the Fallcoast Board of Tourism and Convention.

• My character just got a casino resort on grid. I want people to go there, play and have fun. It's meant to have a little something for everyone, and for all resource levels, all spheres, etc. etc. etc. It's totally public and available for use at any time for anyone. It has housing available, too, so people can contact me about that. If you're interested in having someone work there, hit me up. If you're interested in doing crimey things involving the place, hit me up. I'm just trying to provide more fun things for people to do on grid, and this place can do everything from BaRP to all kinds of plot stuff. I didn't make it for me, I made it for everyone. That is all. Enjoy!

As for the issues with the setting... I think it's one of those things where a lot of the formality could be excised from it without sacrificing the spirit of what the game is. I'd point to samurai based media... especially fantasy based samurai media... the characters depicted aren't so stringent with the rules and do not act very differently than most people do casually. This could alleviate some of the issues with teahouse RP and the like.

Basically, just keep people from getting too nitpicky over people people'ing.

Please make an L5R game happen. I dunno who I have to blow, but I will.

If I remember correctly, there was also like a giant global stock crash, and total economic devastation along with the Thor strikes which led to the collapse of society and infrastructure and all that, too. It was like TWD without zombies mixed with Mad Max before the bombs dropped between Road Warrior and Thunderdome. with the added spookiness of spirit bleeds and everything else. And there was going to be the nuggets of mystery of what exactly happened, because it seemed too coordinated, or something. But man, this is remembering stuff from loooong ago for me.

@Jennkryst said in Descent Reboot:

It is post-apocalyptic. One might wonder if you are going to have proper covenants, or if they vanished along with mortal society, with new replacements? Sorta like the conspiracies that you could use in lieu of covenants, from Danse Macabre?
I also wonder if you even NEED different clans or bloodlines (or, hell, make the clans themselves bloodlines?)
I also whole-heartedly support coastal settings. Mostly because I wanna be ON A BOAT.

So, the conspiracies idea is neat. I hadn't thought of that, but it seems like a swell idea. It's something to consider. For ease of use/familiarity, I figured we would, in fact, just use the standard covenants, and see what kind of neat spins that the player base might put on them to put them into context of this new world. I think there is a lot of potential for taking the themes and tropes of each of those Covenants and twisting/subverting them to adapt to a post-apoc setting. But damn, if conspiracies aren't cool.

As for the setting, it's not coastal, but boats are a thing. St. Louis is bordered with two major rivers in the Missouri and Mississipi. Let river pirating commence.

@Ganymede said in Descent Reboot:

But the work has already been done for you, mostly. As I said, some of us have been trying to translate the Bloodlines to 2E.
Some of the Bloodlines would be great for the Descent, like the Dragolescu. If I recall, the Descent had the spirit world bleeding into the real world, which was a totally awesome idea (and one of the reasons why I made a Werewolf there).
If you want help on this end, hit me up. I'm in.
(I used to play 'Wolf' there.)

I'm all up for it. Come on.

@Ganymede said in Descent Reboot:

@ShelBeast said in Descent Reboot:

One thought is to have Bloodlines be represented by the Mystery Cult Initiation merit, though. Let people pitch them in that light, using those rules.

I'm sorry, but Bloodlines aren't Mystery Cults, and were never calculated to be.
There is plenty of online conversion that has already occurred. Blackwall (sp?) and I went through all of the available Bloodlines, winnowed them down to workable ones, and then pitched a bunch for RfK 2.0. I worked on some with skew, and some made it to Reno.
Bloodlines were an important thematic element for Vampire 1E PCs, for the most part. You should give serious thought to presenting them on the Descent, because it will help you stand out from other games (aside from setting).

Bloodlines were an important thematic element of 1st edition. They are not so much that in 2nd, as evidenced by the lack of support for them. You are right in that they were never calculated to be Mystery Cults. Absolutely. But so far, there is no consistent calculation for what they're meant to be at all in 2nd edition. I'm also not certain how adding them would make the game stand out from others. Others already use them. This seems counter to standing out and making Descent more like Reno, for example. Not that it's a bad thing. It's just not "standing out". Meanwhile, not including them means that we're not using other people's work without their express permission to do so, and keeps us from potentially having to go back and redo them if OP ever decides to actually give us some love for vampire, rather than the crap they've been putting out once every hundred years.

I just figured Mystery Cults would be a neat way to throw a bone to those who want them, without having to break systems or HR the crap out of things. Honestly, the less HR'ing we have to do, the better.

@Tempest said in Descent Reboot:

To get away from the XP talk for a moment. Do you have plans for Bloodlines? Do you have writeups for them? Or not going to allow them?

I think the idea is that they're not going to be allowed, as they've only officially released 3 of them. Basically, trying to do them would mean mostly taking from other people (Reno/RFK, etc.) or putting in much more work to try to do what will amount to coming to the same conclusions that those other people did, but trying to do it differently.

One thought is to have Bloodlines be represented by the Mystery Cult Initiation merit, though. Let people pitch them in that light, using those rules.

On the topic of players abusing system mechanics... My completely unsolicited two cents is that I have noticed a very distinct cultural difference between WoD games and Superhero games. It's been my experience that, in Superhero/Comic games, players tend to act more cooperatively than adversarial as they do in WoD, and even in what little SW MU*ing I've experienced. Now, most of the games I've played on have had a limited system that rarely, if ever gets used, but I was on one that was fully implemented to use the old DC RPG ruleset, and this still remained true.

@tragedyjones Better yet, go look up nude pics of the PB. That's what google is for!

@Arkandel To be fair, I kind of am guilty of this right now. I'm playing a physical based Mekhet character with a Presence of 1. But he's a good looking guy. Super good looking.

I try to offset that by making him just detached and cold, and generally socially awkward. Kind of creepy, or always vaguely threatening. That kind of thing. So... the dude is pretty to look at! Until you see him in person and he's just this cold, dead eyed thing that looks completely awkward when he smiles because it looks so fake and unreal that it has an uncanny valley effect. But damn is he pretty.

I will say that the link provided earlier to explain FS3 does state that it's best used for firearms combat and such. A lot of AC takes place in times before the "suggested" periods/settings that the FS3 Engine would be ideal for. It specifically says that it's not as good for fantasy... Which, while I wouldn't classify AC as "fantasy", I'd say that the focus on melee combat and control through gadgetry (as an analogue to wizardry), would kind of make it fall into the same line.

Thoughts?